Prettier with Bangs
by xxfatal
Summary: It was cute before he died. Obito, Rin, and a side of Kakashi. Chapter 7: A star winks at her in the night. She knows he's watching.
1. Prettier with Bangs

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Naruto_, and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

**Prettier with Bangs**

Kakashi watched the clear, uninterrupted water in his canteen settle back into tranquility. His dark, narrowed eyes drifted over to the messy mass of black hair that belonged to one Uchiha Obito. The boy in question caught the look, the subtle cock of a silver brow.

He shook his head, grimacing distastefully. Kakashi returned his eyes to the container in his hand, and shrugged unaffectedly.

There was a tiny sniffle. Just barely.

Obito's face deflated. He glanced at Kakashi resentfully, guiltily, before stuffing his hands in his pockets and shuffling over to the hunched figure of a girl. She continued to dutifully pack their belongings. "Uhh, Rin?" croaked Obito weirdly. She wasn't facing in their direction, and short sienna locks concealed her expression, but he was quite sure it was a look he wouldn't have wanted to look upon, anyway.

She was desperately trying to shove their medical kit into a pocket that refused to accommodate. "What is it, Obito?"

He flinched; he traced melancholy in her tone. He donned on his brave face and squatted down next to her, mentally raving at Kakashi for making him deal with this. "Rin? I don't think that goes there." He grinned sheepishly.

Her ministrations went lax. Her head hung a little lower. Obito swung his gaze urgently over at Kakashi. The prodigy pretended not to notice. "Hey, Rin," he patted her awkwardly on the back, "don't sweat it, ok? You're way too good for that Asuma guy." She went rigid.

Kakashi took a small sip from his canister, contemplating whether or not he should have just done this comforting thing instead of letting a half-baked muscle-head like Obito do it.

"I'm _not_-" She sounded hurt.

"Hey! C'mon, Rin! Smile!" Obito stammered, looking more the fool every passing second. He couldn't even see past the curtain of hair Rin had over her eyes. He reached out and tucked it behind her ear before his brain could even register what he was doing. "C'mon, Rin, smile," he encouraged weakly.

She didn't look up. "Obito, I'm not very pretty, am I?" she whispered. Obito began to sweat. Did Kakashi hear that? What would he have said?

"I-is that what he told you?" Obito queried, his voice going up an octave as he searched about for the right words. "That's crazy!" He tilted her chin up, then gingerly brushed the hair out of her face. "Because, you know, you're the prettiest with bangs!"

She flushed hopefully. "Really?" She smiled, and Obito exhaled a sigh of relief. She suddenly averted her eyes, a strange and uncharacteristic move. "Would you like it if I got bangs?"

Obito grinned. "Yeah, that'd be great!"

When Kakashi looked over again, Rin was giving Obito the prettiest smile he had ever seen.

I was just thinking about how pretty Rin would be with bangs, and this cropped up. I don't like the ending, though.

_fin._

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**A/N:** I'm not quite satisfied with how I wrote Rin. Oh, fickle self. Comments/critique welcomed. Thank you for reading!


	2. Courting

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Naruto_, and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

**Courting **

"I don't know what you're supposed to do with these, Obito," remarked Rin, the orange goggles dangling from her slender fingers.

"Sensei got them for me," whinnied the Uchiha, snatching them back protectively. "Besides, have you seen me in them? I'm hot."

Rin stifled a chortle. "Sensei? The same guy who thinks his blonde afro is sexy?"

Obito frowned petulantly. "You're just jealous."

"Yes." She smiled good-naturedly. "Of course, I am."

"Kakashi!" Obito screamed, flinging his limbs in the air in aggravation. "What do you think of this?"  
he demanded, shoving the orange spectacles between the two dark eyes of the prodigy.

Kakashi blinked, then, with a pointer finger, pushed the offending object away from his precious nose. "What am I supposed to think, Obito?" Kakashi deadpanned.

Obito glanced furtively at the girl across from them. "That these are cool," Obito nudged him in a low voice.

Kakashi gave a low rumble, almost a laugh. "Right," he responded in equally quiet tones.

"Kakashi thinks they're great!" Obito protested loudly, turning on Rin, his expression pulled to appear triumphant. Rin, however, was already preoccupied reading her newest copy of an advanced medical tome. "Rin!" Obito cried, the high pitch indicative of want of attention.

"What?" Her head bobbed up, eyes searching.

Obito's eyes went downward and his frown went lopsided. "Nevermind. You weren't paying attention, anyway."

Rin's visage flashed with concern. "You were talking to Kakashi."

"Yeah, but . . ."

Rin put down her textbook, got up, and brushed off her skirt. When she reached his side, she calmly held out her hand. Obito tentatively gave her the goggles. She smiled gracefully, then gently pulled them onto his head. As she stepped back to observe him, her secret smile grew wider. "I guess I was wrong, Obito," she admitted matter-of-factly. "You look very cute in those goggles."

"Yeah, I guess!" Obito replied loudly, eyes bugging out at Kakashi. Kakashi watched as the moron scratched his head, wildly trying to hide the flush sneaking onto his cheeks.

Kakashi sighed. _Those two._ Then, he caught sight of their sensei coming up the path. _Stupid Sensei for starting all this._

"How's it going today?" Minato greeted them cheerfully.

"Great," came the reply in three different volumes and inflections. Minato raised an eyebrow, quietly surveying the blush dusted on two of his students' noses.

_I guess the goggles worked after all,_ he ruminated boastfully.

_fin._

_

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_**A/N: **After a bit of thought, I chose to turn this into a series of vignettes. I had a party writing them. It's too much trouble searching for a new title, so I'll keep the old one; after all, it's got a bit of charm, don't you think?


	3. Itch

**Disclaimer: ** I do not own _Naruto_, and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

**Itch**

"Oww, ch." Obito grit his teeth painfully as the scratching at his eye came back again. It had been going on and off for days now. _Can't let this bother me. If I don't get there in time, I'm dead!_ He sped up, his sandals scraping quickly against the bark of many trees.

As the clearing in the trees approached, he took a big leap, hoping his feet would not fail him. The ground came up too fast; he felt his shoulder crash against the dirt, felt scrapes mark his face. "Ouch!"

"Obito, what are you doing?" Rin questioned in puzzlement.

"Moron. You're late again," Kakashi remarked with disapproval.

The flustered Uchiha spit the pebbles out of his mouth and shot up to his feet. "Sorry, sorry! Something got in my eye!" Kakashi narrowed his eyes at him. "I swear!" Obito cried. Kakashi returned to his taijutsu exercises, apparently dismissing the ill-thought-out excuse. "I swear, Rin!" Obito repeated, appealing to the sympathetic female member of their team.

Her smile faltered, wilting in concern. "Let me see your eye, Obito," Rin ordered placidly.

He tilted his head back, eyes sliding across the clouds waving above him. Rin got on her toes and peered down at the dark circles looking upwards. They looked perfectly fine to her; no red, nothing indicating any irritants or injuries. "Obito," she disclosed with reluctance, "I don't see anything wrong."

Beneath her sensitive fingertips, Obito's brow wrinkled. "But I'm not lying, Rin, I swear!" He clenched his hand at his side. He'd never live it down if Rin thought he was a liar. "Rin, I-"

"I know you're not lying, Obito," Rin assured him, hands leaving his face. "I guess I just can't find it—" Rin froze, her copper eyes directed intently at Obito's irises. _Did I just . . .? No, it couldn't be._

"What, Rin?" He sounded a little panicked.

"No, nothing, I must have be mistaken. Don't worry, Obito," she patted him soothingly on the back, "you're doing fine."

"So, am I just imagining things?"

"No," she answered, smiling, "they look like happy, little peepers to me."

"So?"

"'So' nothing," Rin replied succinctly. She turned away, waving a hand. "Kakashi, can I spar with you?" The silver-haired nin nodded. She dropped off the heavy medical pouch into Obito's open palms and hurried toward the field.

"Rin, wait!" She didn't seem to hear him. _What aren't you telling me?_ His eyebrows knit in consternation.

"What's wrong with him?" Kakashi asked under his breath, pretending to adjust his arm guards.

Rin beamed at him. "Nothing."

Kakashi regarded her skeptically. "Is it a surprise?"

Rin's sepia eyes flickered happily back in the direction of the clueless Uchiha. "You could call it that." She planted her feet firmly in the ground, preparing herself to face the reckless speed of the Hatake genius.

She never told, but sometimes she wished she did.

_Obito, I bet you're getting your Sharingans soon._ _I'm proud of you._

_fin._

_

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_**A/N: **It's been a while. Digging scraps from my computer. Comments/critique welcomed, and very much appreciated. Thank you for reading._  
_


	4. Discreet

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Naruto. _I'm only borrowing its beloved characters for a moment.

**Discreet**

"You're so obvious," remarks Kakashi in his deadpan voice. "Can that kind of behavior even count you as a shinobi?"

Obito shoots him a dour look. "What are you talking about?" he retorts, abruptly redoubling his kunai-polishing efforts.

"You're terrible at reconnaissance. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," replies Kakashi curtly, calmly assessing the shine on his newest set of shuriken. Deeming the set to be in proper condition, he organizes them into the waiting pouch lying open on the floor.

An awkward sandstorm of pink sweeps across the young Uchiha's shamefaced visage. "If you're talking about that mission last week, I told you," persists Obito, "I didn't know that bastard heard me up in the trees! I was as quiet as a mouse!"

Kakashi barely blinked. "First, no, you weren't as quiet as thought you were; Rin and I heard you all the way from our posts. Second, that's not what I was referring to, moron."

Outraged, the Uchiha leapt from his seat, pointing at Kakashi as if the mere sight of him offended him deeply. "I WAS QUIET—DAMN YOU, KAKASHI!" he hollers, words exploding out of him unchecked. "AND WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TALKING ABOUT THEN?"

"Is everything going alright over there?" Rin pipes, concern poorly concealed in her voice. She stops restocking her medical bags, and peers over apprehensively.

Obito sits down immediately, spluttering his apologies, conveying to her that she really shouldn't mind him, he's just being—he laughs and reflects shamefully on his uncouth display.

Kakashi raises a single brow at him. "You see what I mean?"

"No," Obito mutters sullenly, at an extremely tame volume. He honestly doesn't know, and wishes Kakashi would just _explain it already._

Kakashi, however, espies their sensei striding up the path. He leans down, attaches the pouch to his belt and gets up from his seat. Before he makes it two steps away from him, he says over his shoulder: "You're a shinobi, Obito. If you're going to watch her all time, at least make it discreet."

Obito feels blood flood his face, and gashes his hand on the blunt edge of a kunai.

_fin._

_

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_**A/N: **What can I say? I fell in love with them again. Written in the wee hours of the morning, half-way to sorrow, and with a hand cramp. Nevertheless, comments/critique welcomed. Thank you for reading._  
_


	5. Sharp

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Naruto. _I'm only borrowing its beloved characters for a moment.

**Sharp**

Rin chuckles silently to herself. "How did this happen again?" The smile dances in her voice. "It's not every day I treat a shinobi that hurts himself on an _un_sharpened blade."

"I wasn't paying attention," Obito blubbers pathetically, looking everywhere but at her. He tries to will his skin _not_ to heat up so much beneath her touch.

She gently tears the end of the bandage strip with her teeth and ties it into a neat knot. She places a placating hand on the unlucky cut. "You're good as new, Obito."

"Thanks, Rin," he utters gratefully. She considers the diffidence she senses in his tone for a moment. He brightens suddenly, an idea striking him. "Do you want to grab some lunch with me?" Surprise crosses her face. "As a thank-you!" he adds swiftly.

She breaks into a wide smile. Obito loves that wonderful smile. "That sounds fantastic."

_fin._

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**A/N: **Obito is just so freaking lovable. Darn it, Kishimoto; killing off all these lovable characters. Comments/critique welcomed and very much appreciated. Thank you for reading!


	6. Good Hands

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Naruto. _I'm only borrowing its beloved characters for a moment.

**Good Hands**

He could say it. _Right now,_ he thinks amidst all the turmoil, _right now, because there isn't any other time._

She's holding his hand, still holding onto it; he knows—_can feel it_—that she has no intent to let go of it. Her hand is warm, caring, and loyal to him. He barely hears himself hurrying them out, encouraging them to leave. Safety is what he wants for them.

"Obito," she utters, her voice choked, filled with tears that he knows won't be showing on her face. She's told him once that she doesn't like crying, that she could be doing other things with her time, like saving precious lives. He remembers admiring her from that moment on.

_Say it, now,_ sears through his head. He has to force the words down like unwanted bile. He _can't_, not when he's going to die. Not when he'll never hear her say it back.

"It's alright," he lies. "Go on, Rin!"

She says nothing, doesn't move an inch, and—_damn it—_he doesn't want her to die with him. Kakashi's pleas grow desperate, and Obito can tell that they don't have a single second to waste.

"Rin! Hurry! Grab on!"

"Rin." He's never fathomed that it would be this hard to leave her, to make her leave him. Finally, she shifts. He feels a tear fall on the flat of his hand. He realizes what that must mean. There is heartbreak on her face.

Boulders and gravel grind nightmarishly together. But he hears her through the roar of the rock-slide.

"Obito!"

The suffocating weight threatens to end him. _I couldn't say it. I really care about you, Rin. I wanted us to be together, even if it was just for a little while longer._

It's silent, lonely, and this is not how he wanted to die—but he's left her in good hands. That's enough.

_fin._

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**A/N:** I was listening to _For Blue Skies_ by Strays Don't Sleep, and it reminded me of a scrap I had in my computer. It's heartbreaking song, but I think you have to be in the right mood to listen to it. I went back to read the Kakashi Gaiden Arc, and the above scene seriously had me dripping snot and whatnot. Obito loved that girl.

Thank you for reading. Comments/critique welcomed.


	7. Falling Stars

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Naruto._

**Falling Stars**

She gazes up at the vast night sky. The twinkling lights offer safety and relief from the carnage she's had to witness. She searches them over, scrutinizing them for familiarity. It's futile, she thinks; she's far, too far, away from home.

Suddenly, there is a wink. Her breath catches, and she focuses keenly on that single point in the black velvet. She sees it again, the winking star.

She presses her lips together tightly, to keep from crying—_calling—_out.

_It's him. Only he would—_

Silently, as if to keep anyone else from seeing it, she winks back, forcing a drop of salty sorrow down her cheek.

_fin._

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**A/N: **This pairing makes my heart break into tiny pieces. Comments/critique welcomed. Thank you for reading.


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